The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-24
The Tax on Whisky.

The plan upon which the protectionistl
have apparently settled to reduce the rev.
enue of the government to something like
its needs is to abolish the tax on whisky
and tobacco. They at one time seemed in
clined to advocate large reduction in the
duty on sugar, but the fear of losing the
votes of protectionist Congressman from
Louisiana seems to have caused them to
abandon that idea.
The arguments put forward in favor of
abolishing the tax on whisky are that it is a
war tax, that it is contrary to the spirit of
our institutions, and that in its collection
great hardships are imposed upon the in
habitants of remote mountain regions, who
find it impossible to haul the corn produced
on their farms to the towns over rough
roads, but who, by manufacturing it into
the more compact and valuable form of
whisky, can find profitable market for it.
To the first of these arguments it is
sufficient answer to say that in the vast
sums appropriated for pensions and the IN
terest on the public debt we yet bear war
burdens, and to the second that from
almost the beginning of the government
it has derived portion of its income from
internal taxation.
1t is the third argument, however, upon
which the protection journals of this part of
the country delight to dwell. The illicit
distiller is made the prosecuted victim and
the revenue officer who is trying to enforce
the law a sneaking spy or brutal ruffian.
Pathetic tales are told of the poor noun
taineer, forced by his necessities to disre-
gard a law which he would otherwise obey,
though he regards it as denial of his just
right to turn his corn into whisky, if he
wishes to do so.
Now, it is safe to say that no law on the
statute book carrying with it such severe
penalties for its violation has been admins
tered so gently as has that against illicit
distilling. Great numbers of offenders have
been released ON their own recognizance
and the sentences of those convicted have
almost always been very light. The
exceptions to this rule of kindness
have been in the cases of old
offenders who have shown that
leniency was wasted. But even if the law
mad been administered as sternly as posi-
BILE, should there be any great sympathy
for the man who violates it in the hope of
safely filling his pockets. He knows the
risks he takes and deserves no sympathy if
his venture turns out badly. The right to
turn ones corn into whisky is no more in
herent than the right to spend ones money
where it will buy the moSt-that is in the
cheapest market The internal revenue law
DntS restraint IlpOn the one right and the
tariff laws upon the other.
In treating of the wrongs and sufferings
of the hunted mountaineer who makes
moonshine whisky, there is one point upon
which the journals who demand the repeal
of the whisky tax do not touch. They say
he cannot haul his corn to market Droftably
because it is bulky and the price low, but
is it not the margin made by the 9Oc. tax
which makes it possible for him to haul
whisky probably over the same rough roads,
Whisky is quoted in Chicago at 81 10
per gallon, of which 90c. is tax. Can the
mountaineer, with his crude machinery and
twenty gallon still, make whisky, haul it
over the rough roads SO often insisted on
and sell it for 20c gallon. In all proba-
bility he would find it more profitable to
sell the corn.
1t is plain enough that it is the tax which
makes the moonshiner's market, and he has
no right to complain of law as restraining
him in the exercise of an inherent right
when it is only the existence of that law
which makes the exercise of the right
profitable and therefore possible